U.S. stock index futures slipped on Wednesday with shares of Boeing set to weigh on the market after two Japanese airlines grounded their Dreamliner fleets. JPMorgan Chase &amp; Co said fourth-quarter net income jumped 53 percent and earnings for 2012 set a record, while earnings at Goldman Sachs nearly tripled.

It's been awfully quiet on the earnings front in recent weeks, and there's a reason: This is the time of year when accountants are nailing down the financials for the fiscal quarters that ended in September. Later this week, the conference calls will begin trickling in, and then it will be a deluge of quarterly reports until early November.

As the market breathes a sigh of relief on hopes that Europe isn't going to fall apart and the unemployment picture isn't getting worse, the focus shifts to China and earnings season. But earnings may be overshadowed if inflation data out of China is worse than expected, now that the country has the world's second largest economy.

Alcoa, Intel and JPMorgan Chase will kick off a new earnings season this week when they report their results for the fourth quarter of 2010. Here's a quick look at what analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect to see, followed by a glance at what's coming up on the economic calendar.

The nation's second-largest bank by assets said third-quarter income rose 23% to $4.4 billion, or $1.01 a share. While investment and retail banking revenue slipped, JPMorgan was able to set aside less money to cover bad loans, which accounted for the better-than-expected earnings in the quarter.

J.P. Morgan Chase kicks off earnings season for the financial sector Thursday, and investors will be keen to see whether a pick-up in mergers and acquisitions has offset an industry-wide drop-off in trading activity.

JPMorgan (JPM) reported second-quarter earnings Thursday, beating analyst expectations.
The nation's second-largest bank recorded a profit of $4.8 billion, compared with $2.7 billion a year ago. Earnings per share came in at $1.09.

JPMorgan Chase earnings come out early Thursday, and the nation's second-biggest bank should show strong results from investment banking and lower loan losses. The consensus is for 70 cents per share in earnings, up from 28 cents in the prior-year period.